Dainis Kazakevičs (born 30 March 1981) is a Latvian professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager.

Club career

Kazakevičs began his career in the youth team of Jelgavas BJSS, later representing

Jelgava Jelgava () is a state city in central Latvia. It is located about southwest of Riga. It is the largest town in the Semigallia region of Latvia. Jelgava was the capital of the united Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1578–1795) and was the ad ...

-based club Dialogs in the 1995 edition of the

Latvian First League The Latvian First League () is the second tier of football in Latvia and is organised by the Latvian Football Federation. Since 2021, its full name is Nākotnes Līga (''Future League''). History The league was founded together with other Latv ...

Managerial career

Following his playing career, Kazakevičs moved into coaching, coaching

Viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

's second team. In 2001, Kazakevičs was appointed head coach of Viola. Kazakevičs held the post until the club's demise in 2003, when they merged with

RAF Jelgava RAF Jelgava was a Latvian football club based in Jelgava. The foundation of the club is considered in 1988 and for the first two years there were two teams of RAF Jelgava which in 1990 merged into one. One of those played in the lower Soviet leag ...

to form

FK Jelgava FK Jelgava is a Latvian football club that is based in Jelgava. The club plays its home-matches at the Zemgales Olimpiskais Sporta Centrs stadium with capacity of 1,560 people. In 2021, the club dissolved its professional team, which was abso ...

. Kazakevičs remained manager of the newly formed club. In 2009, Kazakevičs won the

, guiding the club to the

Latvian Football Cup The Latvian Football Cup () is the main knockout cup competition in Latvian football. Since 2021, its full name is Responsible Gaming Latvian Football Cup (''Atbildīgas spēles Latvijas kauss'') due to the sponsorship by sports betting company W ...

a year later. In 2013, following his departure from Jelgava, Kazakevičs was appointed Latvia's under-21 manager. Kazakevičs remained in the post for seven years. On 20 January 2020, Kazakevičs was confirmed as

Slaviša Stojanovič Slaviša Stojanović (born 6 December 1969) is a Slovenian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Koper. As manager, Stojanović has won the Slovenian PrvaLiga twice, with Domžale, and the Serbian SuperLiga once, ...

's successor as manager of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. On December 7, Dainis Kazakevics lost his position as the head coach of the Latvian national football team following a board decision. Since the beginning of 2020, when Dainis Kazakevics started leading the national team, he had to contend with critics from the outset, as his appointment to the position raised immediate questions. Criticism of Kazakevics persisted thereafter, and skepticism did not completely disappear even during the series of five victories in 2022. However, the call for ''DainisOut'' reached its zenith in 2023 - that year saw ten games with nine losses, and notably, since the beginning of September, only two goals were scored in six matches (all scored in the victory over Armenia, during which the fan sector demonstratively left the stands in the first half, demanding the coach's resignation). The pressure from the public did not diminish afterwards, culminating in the termination of his contract.

Managerial statistics

References

People from Bauska 1981 births Living people Latvian men's footballers FS Jelgava managers Latvia national football team managers Latvian football managers Men's association football players not categorized by position {{Latvia-footy-bio-stub